Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman, 1942 - 1994
Derek Jarman was born on 31st
of January, 1942, in Northwood, Middlesex, Britain. He died on the 19th
February, 1994, at St Bartholomew's hospital, London. Born Michael Derek
Elworthy Jarman, he went on to become one of Britain's most outspoken
gay rights advocates - using his films and painting as a way of demostration!
His father was a New Zealander who had a career in the RAF, and Derek's
childhood was spent at a succession of RAF bases, including RAF Merryfield
in Somerset. After a short stay in Italy, where Derek describes falling
in love for the first time as a young boy, him and his family went to
India where his father was posted to help establish the Pakistan Air Force
after independence in 1947.
He completed a degree
in history, English and art at King's College London. He then studied
painting at the Slade School, London (1963-67). He exhibited in the Young
Contemporaries at the Tate Gallery in 1967, won the Peter Stuyvesant Award
and had a one-man show at the Lisson Gallery in 1968. He also had his
work exhibited at the John Moores exhibition.After this early success in the
art world, he then moved into costume and set design for the Royal Ballet.
However, the poor reception of his designs for the ENO Don Giovanni at
the Coliseum in 1968 led to him to moving away from this type of work.
His first work for the cinema was as production designer for Ken Russell's
The Devils, (1970).
Jarman spent much of
the 70's using an 8mm camera that a friend first loaned to him, mainly
filming his friends, studio and general life - (much of this footage became
the film Glitterbug, assembled after his death). His directorial feature
debut was in co-directing and co-writing Sebastiane in 1976 along
wit
h Paul Humfress. James Whaley also sharing a writing credit. This was
followed by Jubilee which screened at Cannes in 1977, and The
Tempest which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 1979.Throughout the 1980's
he continued to direct many short films and music promos: his first for
Marianne Faithful, followed by videos for The Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths
and Marc Almond.
In 1984, the ICA held a retrospective
of Derek's paintings and in the same year he made a short film inspired
by a pre-perestroika trip to the Soviet Union, entitled Imagining
October. He also completed designs for a ballet by Micha Berghese,
and published his first autobiographical book - Dancing Ledge.
In 1986, Derek premiered Caravaggio at the Berlin Film Festival.
The project which took him many years to realise gained him major recognition
in the US.
On 22nd December 1986 Derek Jarman was diagnosed as HIV positive, and
bravely revealed his condition a month later. He became a rare public
figure to talk openly about his own AIDS illness. His second book: The
Last of England was published in 1987 to coincide with the release
of the film of the same name. The film won the LA Critics Award.
At the Tyneside Film festival in 1987 he met Kevin Collins (addressed
as 'H.B' by Jarman) who was then 21. He had recently graduated and was
writing software for the Government. He had been brought up in a village
near Newcastle by parents who were socialists and devout Methodists. Derek
Jarman pursued Kevin Collins by letter and within a few months Kevin went
to London and moved in with Derek. They both were committed campaigners
with OutRage!.
In 1988, Derek directed War Requiem, based on the Benjamin Britten
work - it featured Laurence Olivier in his last screen performance.
In 1990, Derek released The Garden - an innovative and controversial
piece of autobiographical cinema. The narrative was a fragmented exploration
of the church and its persecution of homosexuality, shot around his garden
at Prospect Cottage and surrounding landscape of Dungeness, Kent.Edward II was
released in 1991, followed by Wittgenstein in 1993 - a biography
of the eponymous philosopher and finally his swansong masterpiece Blue
- a film comprised entirely of a blank blue screen and a haunting, poetic
soundscape.
Kevin Collins nursed Derek Jarman for the final seven years of his life.
His battle with AIDS is recorded throughout his autobiographies Modern
Nature and the posthumously released Smiling in Slow Motion.Within British Cinema
history (and cinema in general) Derek Jarman is unique - offering a view
of the world both political and personal (the two being inextricably linked),
defying the mainstream assumptions and dictates that 'good' films need
to cost millions and appeal to the widest demographic. Defying the mainstream
full stop. Celebrate Queer - don't hide it! Derek Jarman's art was in
the way he lived - his medium of expression being celluloid, video, canvas,
prose and poetry - and of course, his beautiful and alien garden on the
shingle of Dungeness. Through the stunning martyrdom of Leonardo Treviglio's
Sebastiane at the hands of beautiful Roman's, Tilda's agonising cries
against the wind for The Last of England, to the revelation of
illness and the subsequent washes of colour in his art - blood red, delphinium
blue - Derek Jarman's passion, spirit and vision was overwhelmingly present
till the end.
This page was created to continue celebrating this life. It is the webmasters
personal view that contemporary queers (homosexual, bisexual, straight
and asexual!) owe much to Derek's artistic activism, and that artists
in general have much to learn from his ability to present his own life
in art - yet by doing so in a way that bypasses egotism, vanity and crassness.
When Derek spoke of his life, he spoke for us all.
About The Webmaster
James Tucker is a film & video maker living in Brighton, UK. He can
be contacted at info*at*slowmotionangel.com
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With Sister Morticia, London ICA Feb 2006